freedom to feel

Mourning and Dancing. I am doing a #shereadstruth Bible study this month on Mourning and Dancing. Over the weekend, we were instructed to spend time praying and reflecting over Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4:

There is an occasion for everything,
and a time for every activity under heaven:
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance.

I wanted to share the prayer I wrote in my journal this morning as I reflected on this…

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and Holy Spirit, today I pray for the freedom to feel. To fully experience both the laughter and the tears, both the mourning and the dancing. I don’t want to hide or stifle my emotions, or to get stuck at one extreme or the other. 

Lord, you have ordained both, and both are used for Your purposes. There is a time for everything. Help me submit to You in that, and to walk faithfully with you through both the joy and the sorrow, and even when the two are inter-mixed.

In every season, help me be in tune with Your heart and with those around me. Break my heart for what breaks Yours, but let me also rejoice in Your plan, Your kingdom, Your work, Your salvation. May I rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And God, may I be open and vulnerable enough to allow others to rejoice and weep with me. 

Amen. 

How have you experienced this topic– mourning, dancing, the intermingling of the two? The freedom to feel, and to allow others in on it? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!